


He totally got it... sort of... maybe...

by Nanerich



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alec is a Little Shit, Babysitting, Date Night, Gen, M/M, Sort Of, jace got it handled, maybe not, shapeshifter max, the baby is a bat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 18:37:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21104123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nanerich/pseuds/Nanerich
Summary: Jace babysits the Lightwood-Bane-kids, so his brother can have a nice date-night with his hubby. And Jace got it, no issues at all. Until Max turns into a bat.





	He totally got it... sort of... maybe...

“I don’t remember the last time you got dressed up for me like that”, Magnus smirked as he came up behind his husband, who was currently inspecting himself in the mirror.

“I think that’s because every time we do have time to ourselves, you always hurry to get me out of whatever I’m wearing”, Alec shot back as he straightened out his tie.

“Can you blame me, though? Besides, you never seem to complain.”

“I am definitely not”, Alec made clear, turned around and wrapped his arms around Magnus’ shoulders. “But I am really looking forward to having a nice dinner date.”

After a gentle kiss, Alec linked their arms and together they walked out into the living room, where they were met with three sets of wide eyes.

“Daddy, te ves fabuloso!” Rafael jumped off the couch and walked over to properly inspect Alec’s attire.

“Thanks, honey.” He kneeled down and tousled Rafe’s hair. “Might want to tell Papa as well.”

“Papa”, he smiled, “Daddy looks really fabuloso!”

“Yeah, he does”, Magnus laughed along with the other grown-ups. “But how do you think I look?”

“Like always”, Rafe shrugged and climbed back on the couch and tried to win as much room on Uncle Jace’s lap from Max as he could.

“Wow”, Magnus deadpanned, “you Shadowhunters really know how to compliment.”

Alec just snorted a laugh and turned to their eldest. “We’re heading out now. You gonna look after Uncle Jace?”

“Prometido”, the little Shadowhunter nodded.

“Good. Have a fun evening”, Magnus smiled and put a kiss on his and Max’s cheek, before Alec parroted and kissed his sons as well.

“If anything’s wrong, we’re just a portal away.”

“Go”, Jace urged them, “enjoy your evening. Don’t worry, I got this handled, darling.”

“If they can have fancy dinner, so can we”, Jace decided as soon as the door closed. “What do you feel like?”

“Fries!”, Rafe beamed, Max excitedly brabbled after him, which sounded to Jace like the brothers were in agreement.

“How fancy”, Jace deadpanned, before grinning right back: “sounds perfect!”

Not that Jace was one to toot his own horn like this, but he had the two boys under perfect control. He got them fed, cleaned and in their little beds and after three pirate stories, Rafe finally fell asleep. Little Max was still brabbling quietly in his crib, but he couldn’t be that far from drifting off either. So, Jace could relax on the couch, with Chairman Meow on his lap.

Until he was startled by a weird sound. “Did you hear that, too?”, Jace whispered to the cat as he muted the TV.

There was no screaming, no moping, nothing from the kids, so they had to be alright. Woah, what was that? A shadow flew across the room, before flapping in front of Jace’s face. Oh fuck, he almost threw the cat halfway across the living room in shock. After he calmed down again, he realized it was a bat, no doubt. A blue bat. Blue. Just like Max… WHAT THE FUCK?

“Max? Is that you?”

The bat took two rounds around Jace’s head, which he deciphered as a yes. He hurried around to make sure that all windows and doors were closed, before he checked the crib, just to be completely sure that yes, this little blue bat was in fact his nephew. And the crib was empty. Fuck.

He fell on the couch and looked at the bat doing rounds around the chandelier. A bat. An actual bat! His brother’s warlock child had turned into a bat. Only the flapping of Max’s wings made any noise and Jace did all he could to keep from freaking out; that wouldn’t help anybody. But what was he supposed to do? WHAT?

And then his phone rang. Alec. Fuck. He felt the colour draining from his face and took a deep breath before he answered the call. “Hey, Alec, how’s your night?” Jace did his all to sound relaxed.

“It’s nice, but are you alright?”

“Sure, why wouldn’t we be?”

“I just get the feeling something’s off… I can sense that you’re worried, anxious. Magnus says I’m over-reacting, but I just need to make sure that everything’s alright.”

“Sorry, I’m just watching some movie with some very creepy killer-dolls and I guess I just got a little too worked up.”

“Oh. That’s worrying in a different way. Remember, they can’t hurt you.”

“Ha, ha, very funny.”

“Right then”, Alec laughed, “get back to your scary movie and I’ll get back to my husband before he finished all of my dessert. See you!”

Uff. Jace was an idiot. He should have just told Alec the truth, told him about his blue warlock baby-turned-bat. But no, there was no need to worry Alec on the first night out he and Magnus had in months; at least not until Jace had tried everything he could.

Which wasn’t a lot. He wasn’t a warlock, knew very little about magic and even less about bats. He tried to catch the bat, tried to direct him back towards the crib, but nothing. An hour later, Max still flew in circles over Jace’s head as if it were the best thing in the world to do in the middle of the night.

And then Alec and Magnus came back home; Jace heard them laughing as they walked up to the apartment door. Damnit, Jace was done for.

“Hey”, Alec greeted him, as they walked hand in hand into the apartment.

As soon as he heard them walking in, Max flapped over to his dads, excitedly flying around their heads.

“Hey blueberry”, Magnus smiled, “it’s way past your bedtime. Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“WHAT?” Jace’s chin was somewhere on the ground and he could only look with big eyes from Alec to Magnus to the bat.

“What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” Jace jumped up and gestured towards Max. “Your son is a bat and you don’t care?”

“Oh, he does it sometimes”, Alec shrugged.

“This is normal?”

“Yup.”

Oh, Jace couldn’t believe this! “And you didn’t care to tell me?”

“I’m pretty sure I’ve told you about that.”

“I think I’d remember being told that my nephew occasionally turns into a bat.”

“Tio Jace?” Rubbing his eyes, Rafael walked out into the living room. His hair was wild, standing up in every direction.

“Hey buddy, Sorry, did we wake you?”

“Nuh-uh”, he shook his head, “stayed awake until Papa and Daddy are home again.”

“Of course you did”, Magnus chuckled and picked the little Shadowhunter up. “But now that Daddy and I are home, you can go to sleep, alright?”

With a yawn, the boy nodded, buried his head in the crook of his Papa’s neck and immediately fell back asleep.

Jace was still so focused on the bat, he didn’t realize Alec walking up to him until he put his arm around Jace’s shoulder.

“Sorry for the trauma”, he chuckled.

“Not gonna lie, your family is really weird.”

“And you know a thing or two about that, don’t you, Wayland-Lightwood-Morningstar-Herondale-soon-to-be-Fairchild-Fray.”

“Fair enough.”

“Thanks for tonight”, Alec changed the subject. “Was really nice to go out.”

“I bet... And no worries. Now that I know your son can shapeshift, I’m prepared for next time. One last question, though. How long is he gonna fly around like this? Does Magnus magic him back or how does it work?”

“He’ll eventually just tire himself out”, Alec explained, watching his kid with the biggest heart eyes. “We make sure that all the windows and doors are closed; we’ve already learned that trying to catch him isn’t very fruitful.”

“Again, something that would have been really nice to know an hour or so ago.”

***

It was late when Alec and Magnus slipped into bed. Magnus had portalled Jace back to the institute, Max was no longer winged and lay now sleeping in his crib.

“So”, Magnus rolled over on his side and grinned at Alec. “when I asked you earlier if you had told Jace about Max’s abilities, you said you did that.”

“And?”

“And I got the feeling the reason Jace was unaware about our bat-baby has something to do with you wanting to mess with your brother. But that’s probably just my imagination going wild, right?”

“Definitely, I would never, ever do something like that to the guy that has me constantly redoing all his paperwork”, Alec affirmed, but couldn’t bite down his mischievous grin anymore.

“You do know that he will get back at you for that one, right?”

“Let him try”, Alec yawned, pulling Magnus a little bit closer, “I’ve got the High Warlock of Brooklyn on my side.”


End file.
